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# LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, i 

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! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



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V 



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AN 



^TT§ 



TO DEMONSTRATE THE PRACTICABILITY 



EMANCIPATING THE SLAVES 



UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, 



Y 



AND OF REMOVING THEM FROM THE COUNTRY, WITHOUT IM- 
PAIRING THE RIGHT OF 

PRIVATE PROPERTY. 



SUBJECTING THE NATION TO A TAX. 



A NEW-ENGLAND MAN. 



NEW-VOEK : 
PUBLISHED BY G. & C. CA.RVIL 

Graltan, Printer, Thames-street, 




1825. 



■a it 



Sout?.erii District of Neio-York, ss. 

BE IT REMEMBERED. That on the 21st day of December, A. D. 1825, io the 
oOtli year of the independence of the United States of America, G. k. C. Garvill, of 
llie said District have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof 
they claim as Proprietors) in ihe words following, to wit: 

An Aite ni|il lo demonstrate the practicability of emancipating the Slaves of the 
United Stales ol .North America, and of removing tliem from the Gountry, without 
impairing the light of private ■>. operly, or subjecting the nation lo a tax. 
By a New-fc'ngland Man 
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the Untied States, entitled " An Act for 
the encouragement of Learniug, by seeming the copies of Maps, Charts, and Boohs, 
to the au;hors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned.'* 
And also to an Act, entitled "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for 
tbe encouragement uf Learning by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to 
the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and 
extending the benefits thereof to tlie arts of designingjengraving, and etching histo- 
rical and oilier prints." 

JAMES DILL, Clerk of tU Southern Vutrict of .Yew-fort. 



' 



Pi!ltfRgg a 



The following observations were thrown 
together hastily, as occasion gave rise to them, 
and when the writer was in various states of 
mind and body. This may have occasioned 
inequalities, and perhaps some obscurities of 
diction, and will serve also as an extenuation 
for some probable inaccuracies of construction. 

The writer, however, feels no pride of 
authorship ; if he did, he would best consult 
his reputation as an author, by abstaining from 
an immediate publication, and by waiting until, 
after a period of repose and reflection, he 
might employ a leisure moment, to reconsider, 
revise, and, as far as his competence would 
permit him, improve the style of the com- 
position. 



IV 

But his inducement for appearing before 
the public, through the press, was not to seek 
for literary distinction, but to serve that public — 
to manifest his desire, at least, to contribute 
towards promoting the prosperity and happi- 
ness of his fellow-countrymen ; and deeming 
the present moment a propitious one for its 
publication, he yields to the dictates of what 
he believes to be a duty, at the hazard of 
critical castigation, and submits his embryo 
attempt to the ordeal of public scrutiny. 

December, 1825. 



AN 



ATTEMPT, 



&c. &c. 



It is with no interested views, no sectional 
nor hostile feelings, that the writer of the fol- 
lowing observations ventures to examine a 
question, of so much delicacy as it regards the 
feelings and prosperity of a part, of so much 
interest as it regards the whole, American peo- 
ple. His motives are patriotic ; they arise 
from a sincere desire to promote the public 
weal, so far as his humble abilities may permit 
him to do it. Deeply impressed with the con- 
viction, that what is interesting to one indivi- 
dual portion of the great American family can- 
not be indifferent to any of the other portions, 
however distant or differing in circumstances ; 
that each has a direct interest in the safety, 
prosperity, and happiness of all — a family in- 
terest, which gives the right to each recipro- 
cally, if it does not impose it upon each as a 
duty, to examine all questions touching the in- 



terest and well being of the other. He feels, 
therefore, that he is exercising a right, and dis- 
charging a duty. 

Discussion, to be useful to its greatest ex- 
tent, must be unrestrained ; the more impor- 
tant the subject to be discussed, the greater 
the necessity of its entire freedom. 

The magnitude of the subject under consi- 
deration, and the difficulties arising from its 
mere magnitude, are conclusive reasons for 
laying the national mind and strength under 
contribution. 

The evils which slavery entails upon the 
country are removable, or they are not. They 
are every day increasing in magnitude, and 
becoming every hour more formidable. If 
they are removable, sound reason dictates that 
no time should be lost in unnecessary debate, 
newspaper bickerings, or querulous recrimina- 
tion. Let the difficulty to be surmounted be 
fairly stated — the means requisite to surmount 
it estimated : if within the national compe- 
tence, and the national will assent to it, let the 
means be forthwith applied, and the nuisance 
abated. If, unfortunately for the nation, and 
for that part of it particularly which is more 
immediately affected by the question, the diffi- 



culty be found insuperable, sound reason then 
dictates, that the most effectual means should 
next be sought for to meet existing difficulties 
or dangers, and to guard against future and 
greater ones. That the combined efforts of 
any number of individuals are ipadequate to 
the task, has been sufficiently demonstrated by 
the almost total failure of our manumission 
and colonization societies. So far as they 
may have been intended to reduce the number 
of slaves, the failure has been absolute. 

Emancipation, so far as it is comprised in 
a suppression of the slave-trade, has already 
been assumed as a national concern ; the im- 
portance of the subject has been evinced by 
frequent legislative enactments, and by inter- 
national compacc. This, however important, 
can only be considered as a preliminary step. 
Before a flooded country can be drained, the 
dikes must be repaired, and the flood-gates 
shut. The national arm must again be 
stretched forth; nothing short of national 
strengh can suffice for the giant effort, the 
Herculean task, of liberating, of removing a 
nation. But national protection, and national 
support, are all which, in the writer's opinion, 
need be required; the national purse, he 



8 

thinks, need not be laid under contribution ; 
on the contrary, according to the imperfect 
plan he proposes to submit to the reader's con- 
sideration, the result, amongst other benefits, 
will be an increase of national capital, and of 
national revenue. 

The writer is no otherwise acquainted with 
the proceedings of the manumission and co- 
lonization societies, than from what he has 
been able to gather through the medium of the 
public press. He is not initiated into the ar- 
cana of those associations, and is not, there- 
fore, possessed of the special views they may 
have, in sending out occasional freights of free 
coloured people to Africa or St. Domingo. 
]5ut it must be apparent to all, that, although 
they may " found an empire" in Africa, they 
never can, by their present mode of procedure, 
drain the country of even the natural increase 
of its free coloured inhabitants, much less re- 
lieve it of the whole number of its slave po- 
pulation. 

It does not appear very certain, that the 
happiness of those who are thus transported 
to other regions is at all promoted, if that 
alone be the object. Where, indeed, can 
they, all things considered, be likely to enjoy 



9 

a greater degree of happiness than they may 
command in this country, where they enjoy 
the blessing of liberty — where, if they are 
honest and industrious, they may attain to the 
greatest degree of prosperity — and where they 
are quite as secure, as they can be elsewhere, 
in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour. 
Why, then, are they objects of special patron- 
age, and tender assiduity ? If any of them are 
not happy enough here, and hope to obtain a 
greater share of happiness elsewhere, let them 
seek their own way out of the country, like 
other free folks, their white fellow citizens ; 
the same door is open to both, and there is no 
let or hinderance to either. 

If, on the other hand, it be thought desira- 
ble to transplant this class of the community 
into warmer and distant regions, let a bounty 
be offered for their self-expatriation, and give 
the largest sum to the most worthless object. 
In this way, the country may find some relief; 
in the one now pursued it finds none, but is 
in many cases deprived of some of its useful 
labourers. 

It appears to the writer, that no special 
measures are at all necessary with regard to 
this class of our population — that they may be 

2 



10 

safely left to their fate, and the guardianship 
of the laws. Those who transgress will find 
their way into our penitentiaries or prisons ; 
the others may, as they now are, be usefully 
employed as domestics, or labourers. 

To those who have, from timo to time, dis- 
cussed the subject of emancipation, and who 
have adverted to the inadequacy of the plans 
proposed, or the plans pursued, it has been re- 
plied, Suggest a better one — give us a substi- 
tute ; if you insist upon the execution of the 
act, tell us how it shall be done effectually, 
with safety to the slave holder, and in accord- 
ance with the laws of equity, viewing the slave, 
as he really is, as a species of property, entitled 
to the same protection, and guaranteed by the 
same laws, which secure the enjoyment of every 
other species of property to its legitimate pro- 
prietor. 

So far as it regards the right of property, 
no exception will probably be taken to the 
plan of emancipation which will be submitted 
to the consideration of the reader ; and if its 
feasibility be granted, its efficiency must be 
acknowledged. 

The writer proposes to begin where, those 
perhaps, who constitute the manumission and 



11 

colonization societies may intend to terminate 
their labours. Leaving the free coloured peo- 
ple to act according to their own inclinations 
and means, his plan is based upon the annual 
deportation of such a number of slaves, of all 
ages and both sexes, as shall, progressively, 
and within a given number of years, have 
transferred the whole number to foreign coun- 
tries, where their emancipation shall be the 
fruit of their own labour. 

The laws of equity, if they do not dictate, 
are not violated by this arrangement, and seem, 
under every view of the case, to be sufficiently 
respected. The subjects o be emancipated 
are slaves, in consequence of the barba- 
rous customs of their own country — customs 
which still exist, and which resist the efforts of 
civilized nations to extinguish them. They 
were purchased by the progenitors of their 
actual masters in open market, under the sanc- 
tion of the laws (the barbarous laws, if you 
please,) of this and its mother country ; and the 
relation between them, of master and slave, 
has thus received the sanction of the laws of 
their respective countries. This relation can- 
not be legally or equitably dissolved, except 
by consent of the master, or by means of 



12 

an adequate ransom, in some shape or other. 
Ransom and slavery are parts of the same sys- 
tem. The existing practice of Africa in that 
respect, was once that of Europe ; and from 
one still benighted corner of the latter, we 
have had some recent evidence, that it is not 
yet entirely abolished there. But the actual 
generation of slaves in this country have no 
friends or kindred, through whose munificence 
or affection they may expect to be ransomed, 
in the ordinary acceptation of the term ; and if 
they are enabled to enjoy that blessing by other 
means, they will, so far at least, stand upon an 
equality with their fellow men of Africa ; — but 
in as much as they will, after the consumma- 
tion of their emancipation, become the free 
citizens of civilized countries, and be for ever 
secure, by its protecting laws, in the perpetual 
enjoyment of that freedom, they will possess — 
they will enjoy — an additional advantage, 
which could not, or would not, be granted 
them in the lands of their ancestors. 

It is not the intention of the writer to enter 
into the history of slavery, or the slave-trade ; 
or to trace the origin of the latter, and enume- 
rate the customs which regulated the inhuman 
traffic, now very appropriately placed, by the 



13 

laws of our country, on a parallel with piracy, 
which it disgraces by its greater sordidness, 
and the more ignoble means by which it 
seizes upon its victim. It is enough for his pur- 
pose, and sustains his position, that the trade 
which brought the first unhappy sufferers to this 
country was legalized by its existing govern- 
ments ; and that a valuable consideration was 
paid for them by the progenitors of the mas- 
ters of their descendants, the present race, and 
whose rights over the latter remain unimpaired. 

It would, therefore, be an unequal tax, an un- 
just requisition, to exact of the present proprie- 
tors a sacrifice of their interest, to the whole 
amount of the value of their slaves ; and it 
would seem little less so, to ask it, as a general 
tax in any shape, from the whole nation. 

The slaves, in fact, are convicts, — however 
grating the sound — however hostile the term 
may seem to reason, or afflictive to the best 
feelings of the heart. It has been so determined 
by the laws of the country they came from — by 
the laws of the country which received them. 
In affording them, therefore, an opportunity of 
liberating themselves by means of their own la- 
bour ; in organizing and protecting a system 
which may facilitate the operation ; and in se- 



14 

curing to them its fruition ; — all will have been 
done which, perhaps, they have any just right 
to claim. 

The process of emancipation, once com- 
menced, should be expedited with all practica- 
ble celerity. Its object and its end must be, 
and had best be, known to all ; but whilst this 
knowledge would tend to sustain the hopes, and 
restrain the impatient feelings, of those who 
lingered behind, it might also excite in them 
a feverish anxiety, if the process were inter- 
mittent, or protracted to a hopeless period. 
Such a portion of the whole number, therefore, 
in addition to that of the whole natural in- 
crease, should be deported annually, as to 
make it certain that all, or the major part, 
might hope to participate in its benefits. 

More than one foreign depot may be neces- 
sary for the disposal of so large a number 
as it is contemplated, by the writer, to send 
out of the country annually ; and as the saving 
of time and expense, nearly convertible terms 
in this case, are of prime consideration, so 
none of the depots should be more distant 
than necessity may require ; none of them, it 
is supposed, need be so distant as the Eastern 
hemisphere, hitherto designated as the princi- 



15 

pal receptacle. We have, in our immediate 
neighbourhood, independent of St. Domingo, 
thinly peopled countries, of vast extent, where 
an additional number of productive labourers 
ought to be considered an acquisition of no 
small importance. As it regards St. Domingo, 
no difference of opinion upon the subject can 
exist ; nor that labourers, of the description 
under consideration, would there be more ac- 
ceptable, because more orderly, manageable, 
and consequently more useful, than the free 
coloured individuals who have been persuaded 
to go there by way of experiment. These 
having gone out with inflated notions of advan- 
tages which they did not realize, perhaps of 
honours and promotions which they did not 
merit, have, many of them, returned disappoint- 
ed. Veiy few of the same class will, in all 
probability, be induced, hereafter, to repeat the 
experiment ; and may not, if they do, be al- 
ways received as welcome visiters. 

No inconsiderable portion of the island of 
St. Domingo lies uncultivated for want of la- 
bourers and capital, including many old planta- 
tions, which, from that cause alone, have sunk 
to a tenth part of their former estimated value. 
At that rate, it is said, they may be purchased 



16 

by native inhabitants, or obtained on lease, at 
a proportionate rate, by foreigners. Notwith- 
standing these advantages, it is not proposed, 
nor can it be expected, that. St. Domingo alone 
can receive and dispose advantageously of 
more than a half, or a third, of the whole num- 
ber. But, independently of interested con- 
siderations, we may justly expect that the go- 
vernment and people of this island will, from 
a sense of moral duty, and of fellow feeling 
also, facilitate, by every means in their power, 
an operation so arduous in its execution, and 
involving such high interests, civil and philan- 
thropic ; and that whatever proportion of the 
whole number it may be now capable of re- 
ceiving, that proportion will probably be gra- 
dually augmented, as the process becomes re- 
gularly organized, and its advantages develo- 
ped. 

The other islands of our Western Archi- 
pelago must be passed over as asylums con- 
secrated to other uses ; but we have the whole 
circumjacent Spanish American Continent, 
where slavery has already ceased to exist, and 
where, as we are told, no predilection is felt 
in favour of any particular complexion, or no 
prejudice so strong against any, at least, as to 



17 

render a coloured and useful addition to their 
population unacceptable ; and it may be infer- 
red that the addition would probably be con- 
sidered an acquisition. But if prejudices, as 
strong as our own, existed there, their immense 
tracts of uncultivated lands, separated from each 
other by impenetrable forests, or impassable 
mountains, like so many oases, where the new 
settlers might be located, would suffice to obvi- 
ate all objections of that sort. Taking it for 
granted, that what might be excluded from St. 
Domingo, wuiild be received into these coun- 
tries, the next difficulty which presents itself is 
that which may arise from want of capitalists, 
as employers, to put this mass of labour into 
active and pioductive operation. 

This difficulty may be overcome by offering 
such advantageous employment for capital to 
enterprising men, or associations, as might in- 
duce them to direct their attention to this 
object ; and would best be effected by the 
greater facility with which good lands could be 
obtained in the recipient country, and the easier 
modes of remunerating the deporting country 
for labour, and the security with regard to the 
persons and property of the contractors which 
both governments might grant. Such condi- 

■3 



18 

tions will, of course, be imposed upon the em- 
ployers or contractors, as to secure the punctual 
and faithful execution of their part of the con- 
tract, and the persons of the labourers from 
abuse. These are necessary parts of the pro- 
cess, but need not be considered here. The 
writer ventures, however, to suggest the adop- 
tion of one measure, at the hazard of being 
thought fanciful by some, but which cannot fail 
to have a favourable influence upon the minds 
of calculating men. The nature of the opera- 
tion, and the trade which is calculated to result 
from it, seem to claim some mark of favourable 
distinction ; and if what is now theory should 
happily become practice, he hopes he does not 
deceive himself, when he supposes that mari- 
time nations might be induced to agree to re- 
spect, even during a state of hostilities, vessels 
and their burdens, whether of human beings 
or of merchandise, which might be employed 
exclusively in that occupation. If the laws of 
nations still sanction the principle, that every 
other species of private property afloat be con- 
sidered objects of legitimate reprisal, does not 
humanity require an exception in favour of this 
one ? No argument is necessary to prove that 
such a security, thus guaranteed, would con- 



19 

duce, next to a fair rate of profit, more than any 
other ueasure, to draw capit dint o this channel; 
and that the competition amongst capitalists, 
thus excited, combined with the security afford- 
ed them, would tend to reduce the charges in- 
cident to the transportation to their lowest pos- 
sible rate. Other and important advantages, 
not immediately foreseen, might be expected to 
follow. If no other cash payments were requi- 
red, than such as might be necessary to pay the 
expense of transportation, subsistence and 
wages, the circle of competitors would be en- 
larged by the admission of enterprising men of 
small capitals, and by enabling both large and 
small capitalists to enlarge their contracts. 
Every encouragement, consistent with security, 
should be given, in order to accelerate the pro- 
cess of deportation, because upon this must de- 
pend the greater or less number of years it 
may require to free the country from slavery, 
and accomplish the manumission of the slaves. 
Every reduction of expense, whether in the 
shape of interest, or in that of incidental 
charges, must have the effect of accelerating 
the process of manumission, by leaving a larger 
proportionate amount of wages applicable to 
that purpose. 



20 

The proposed plan, as may reasonably be ex- 
pected, comprehending objects of such vast mag- 
nitude, must almost necessarily encounter great 
difficulties in its execution, which can be over- 
come by an adequate power only. One of the 
greatest, perhaps the only one really so, consists 
in the mode of remunerating the proprietors of 
the slaves, for the estimated value of the latter. 
To require prompt payment, would at once re- 
duce the number of competitors so considerably, 
as to retard the execution of the plan, perhaps 
to render it altogether nugatory. On the other 
hand, if time were granted, an 1 security required, 
mere individual responsibility would probably 
be altogether inadmissible ; and it is difficult to 
conjecture what collateral security could be of- 
fered, within the competency of individuals' 
who, if not all foreigners, would, it may be ex- 
pected, be all foreign residents. To obviate 
this principal difficulty, it is proposed, that 
the government of the United States, after 
having made its arrangements, by treaty or con- 
vention, with the governments of the respective 
recipient countries, and taken such other mea- 
sures, for enforcing a punctual discharge of their 
contracts on the part of those to whom the 
slaves may be let, should grant funded stock 



21 

for the amount of their estimated value, draw- 
ing a fair but moderate rate of interest, and 
payable at such periods as the funds, resulting 
from the labour of the slaves, and appropriated 
to the extinction of the stock, may render ne- 
cessary. The stock might be issued to each 
claimant proprietor respectively, or might be 
negociated in the usual way. 

Here the control of the master over his slave 
would cease, and that of government commence. 
The slave, too, from this moment, might be con- 
sidered as having changed his character, and to 
have assumed that of a redemptioner.* Placed 
under the protection, and subject to the disposi- 
tion of government, it will be for government to 
adopt such regulations for the safety of their per- 
sons, during their transit from one to the other 
country, for their mode of subsistence there, and 
to protect them from acts of severity or injustice, 
as it may choose to dictate or require. 

The rate of wages, like the value of the 
slave, might be fixed in this country previous 
to his embarkation. The produce of his labour 

* The term redemptioner is meant to be taken in its ordinary signi- 
fication, as applied to those Europeans who are brought to this coun- 
try, and whose' time and labour is, for a limited period, sold, to pay the 
expense of their transportation. 



22 

might be received in the country of his redemp- 
tion, annually, or oftener, by agents authorized 
for that purpose, and remitted to other agents in 
the United States, either in specie, or raw pro- 
duce. The proceeds of these remittances, after 
the deduction of incidental charges, would be 
applicable to the payment of interest, and con- 
stitute a sinking fund for the redemption of the 
debt incurred by government, by its issue of 
stock. The amount of the assets thus received, 
being that nearly of wages, the determination 
of these will decide also the number of years 
for which the stock may be issued, and shows 
the necessity, or expediency, of fixing the rate 
of wages previous to or at the period of em- 
barkation. This completes the process of ma- 
numission 

It is obvious, that the remittances for labour 
each three, six, or twelve months, as the case 
may be, will, to the same amount, reduce the 
responsibility of government, until, progressive- 
ly, it become null, at the expiration of the period 
for which it was issued. 

Fan her on, the writer will offer a few sugges- 
tions with regard to the mode of appropriating 
the sums thus received, and destined to consti- 
tute the sinking fund, and will proceed to esti- 



mate what may now (1825) be the probable 
number of slaves in the United States. 

By the census of 1 820, the number of slaves, 
of all ages, in the United States, appears to be 
as follows : 



MALES. 


FEMALES. 








































CO 

p 


•c 

§ e 


-c 

3 ™ 


5 

t "C 


tS 

a- 


c ■ 

3 2 


-c 


2 "o 


. 


"* 2? 


1 1. 




* 5 

a, * 


3 « 


re *■» 


<5 >^ 




o 
H 

S 


<3 O 


2* 




5 * 


0) C 


2 § 


=> 3 


"> 3 


c 








C 


<M 






3 


p 


o 


o 


o 


D 


c 


o 


O 


to 


342,460 


202.248 


162 95C 


77.(MS 


323.0M 


201. 09 


1 1.922 


70320 


i sa • 4se 



According to Seybert, the whole number of 
slaves, in 1790, was 697,696; and in 1800, 
896,849, showing an increase of 172,152, or at 
the rate of about 24f per cent. The whole 
number in 1810, he states to have been 
1,191,364, showing an increase of 321,515, or 
about 35 T W P er cent - for tne preceding ten 
years. The difference between 1,191,364, the 
whole number for 1810; and 1,531,436, that of 
1820 is 340,072, or about 28^ per cent. 

Some inaccuracies may have occurred in 
taking the earlier censuses ; but as the constitu- 
tion of the United States withheld from con- 
gress the power to interdict the slave trade, 
until after the year 1808, there can be little 
doubt that the apparent disproportion of in- 



24 

crease, during the ten years, between 1 800 and 
1810, was, in a considerable degree, attributa- 
ble to importation. The increase, therefore, 
which appears to have taken place between 1810 
and 182(1, affords, probably, the only basis upon 
which the ratio of increase, for the five years 
elapsed since the latter period, can, with any ap- 
proach to accuracy, be estimated ; and as it 
amounts to an annual average rate of nearly 3 
percent., this rate, to avoid fractions, will be 
adopted in estimating the actual number And 
as more attention has been lately paid, than for- 
merly, to the morals, health, and comfort of the 
slaves in many parts of the country, the estimate 
will, probably, be not far from the truth. If, 
then, 229,715, the increase on 1,531,436, the 
number in 1820, calculated at 3 per cent, per an- 
num, for the five last years, be added to the 
1,531,436, we shall have 1,761,151 for the year 
1825. Adopting the same ratio of increase for 
the future, and taking the last number as the 
basis of our calculation, we shall have an annu- 
al increase of 52,835* — fractions apart. 

If no more than the annual increase were 

* 52,8. ^4-rVo' being the rate of increase on 1,761,151, so whenever 
the latter is decreased the former will bear a greater ratio than 3 per 
cent, to the reduced number, and the excess thus produced, will contri- 
bute an addition to the 50,318. increasing annually, as the whole num.- 
her became more and more reduced. 



/ 



25 

of the country, no reduction of the 
n\\(\ tike place ; the only effect 
•rion would be to render their ex- 
- numbers stationary, and their residence 
here permanent. To produce a gradual reduc- 
tion, so many more must be sent away, as in a 
given series of years shall have transferred the 
whole number to other countries. 

If thirty-five years be assumed for the series, 
then an additional number of 50,318 will be 
required to effect the object within that period. 
It is true, in fact, that the sum of these two 
quantities would effect the transfer in a less 
term than thirty-five years ; but as the object of 
the writer is simply to illustrate the elements of 
his plan, in the clearest possible manner, so 
as to make it intelligible to the plainest un- 
derstanding, he has adopted a plain and ap- 
proximative, rather than a precise mode of 
estimate. Thus, the whole annual number re- 
quired to be deported, according to this plan, 
would be 103,153 persons of both sexes, and 
all ages, to be taken by families, or in such 
other way as to comprise, as nearly as possi- 
ble, an exact proportion of each. 

To some, perhaps, the number required to 
be disposed of annually, may seem to be ex~ 

4 



26 

cessive, and to render the plan illusory. A 
few moments reflection, however, ought to dis- 
sipate all doubts of its feasibility. There have 
been years, perhaps at no very remote period, 
when slave dealers have transported from Af- 
rica, and transferred to various distant coun- 
tries, where markets were found for such mer- 
chandise, nearly as large, if not an equally large 
number, ft were to beg the question, to ask, 
whether the whole united strength of the 
American people, under the most favourable 
circumstances with regard to distance and 
means of transportation, animated by motives 
best calculated to stimulate exertion, and to 
gratify the noblest feelings of the heart, was 
unequal to the same effort — an effort upon 
which depends, in no small degree, the inte- 
rest, the honour, the happiness of the nation. 
It would be a libel upon its feelings, and a 
mockery of its strength. But its strength 
need not be put forth ; its protection and 
support is all that will be required. The 
writer flatters himself that he shall be able to 
demonstrate, not only the practicability of the 
removal of the number required, but to show, 
to the entire satisfaction of his readers, that the 
operation, and the means of carrying it into. 



27 

effect, will, independently of other and perma- 
nent benefits which the country will derive from 
the change of a free white, for a coloured slave 
population, constitute a new and additional 
source of national wealth and prosperity. 

The following is an estimate of the propor- 
tionate numbers of each class, according to 
age and sex, which ought to constitute the an- 
nual deportation, for the basis of which, as 
heretofore stated, the census of 1820 has been 
taken : — 



28 



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29 



The annual deportable proportionate num- 
bers of persons, of all ages, and both sexes, 
constituting the increase, estimated at 52,835, 
will be nearly as follows, viz. 

~MALES. 



Under 14 years of age, - ■ 
Oi i-i years and under 20, 
Of 20 years and under 45, 
Of 45 years and upwards, 

Total number of Males, 



11,814|| 
6,977i| 
5,621|i 
2,656|i 



11,815 
6,977 
5,622 
2,657 



27,071 



FEMALES. 



Under 14 years of age, - - 
Of 14 years and under 20, 
Of 20 years and under 45, 
Of 45 years and upwards, 

Total number of Females, 



11,143** 

6,952^ 
5,241ff 
2,426ff 



or 11,144 

6.052 
5,242 
2,426 



25,764 



RECAPITULATION. 

1,761,151 



Males, - 27,071 > Z_T v Q 
Females, - 25,764 / ' ~~^jj 

Whence it results, that of the 103,153, the 
proportionate numbers of individuals, accord- 
ing to ages and sexes, will be as follows, viz. 

Of Males, under 14 years of age, - 
of 14 years and under 45, 
of 45 years and upwards, 



Of Females, under 14 years of age, 
of 14 years and under 45, 
of 45 years and upwards, 



23,067 

24,598 

5,187 

21,757 

23,807 
4,737 



52,852 



50.301 



Grand total, 



1C3,153 



The writer has been able to obtain no offi- 
cial, or other document, upon which reliance 
could be made, to constitute a basis for the 
estimation of the average value of slaves ; the 
information upon the subject, afforded by Sey- 
bert, is quite imperfect, and totally inadequate 
to the purpose. The answers given to his 
verbal inquiries, have been equally unsatisfac- 
tory ; so that the following estimate must, in 
a great measure, be considered as conjectural 
only. 

In 1813, according to Seybert, official re- 
turns were made, by the slave-holding states, 
of the value of their slaves, but of these only 
two appear to have been perfect ones, that of 
Connecticut, and that of Maryland ; in the for- 
mer, without giving their number, the valuation 
was $3,192 ; in the latter, $14,525,845. The 
census of 1810 gave 310 for Connecticut, and 
97 for 1820; for Maryland 111,502 for 1810, 
and 107,398 for 1820, making a diminution for 
the ten years elapsed of 213 for the former, or 
at the rate of 21 T V per annum, and 4,104 for 
the latter, or at the rate of 410 T V per annum. 
According to these ratios of annual diminution, 
there ought, in 1813, to have been in Connec- 
ticut 246 T V, making the average value of each 



31 

slave rather less than #13; in Maryland 
110,270 T ° ¥ , making the average value of each 
slave there, rather less than $ 1 32. 

The rapidity with which emancipation ap- 
pears to have been progressing in Connecticut, 
and where, by this time, according to that ratio, 
slavery must have ceased to exist, forbids any 
use to be made of the return from that state, 
as the valuation must have applied to the time, 
and not to the persons of the slaves. The es- 
timate for that state, therefore, will be con- 
sidered as inapplicable to the present question. 
There remains, then, that of Maryland alone, 
and the average value which it gives for that 
state is probably a fair one. Further to the 
southward and westward, in cotton and sugar 
producing states, slaves are known to bear a 
higher market value. 

In estimating the general average value of 
the annual deportation for all the slave-holding 
states, it is the purpose of the writer to grant 
more than might be justly required ; and he 
thinks the following rates, which give an ave- 
rage of about fifty per cent, on that for Mary- 
land, will, at least, whilst they afford a test for 
the stability of his plan, leave no room for 
doubt upon the subject of their sufficiency. 



32 

The classification furnished by the census, as 
estimated for 1825, will be assumed as the 
basis of calculation, and so far as it regards 
the personal average value of the slaves, may 
afford a pretty correct one. By that estimate!, 
it appears that there ought now to be 

24,598 males of from 14 up to 45 years c ' > 

age. which, at .1300' each, make* an \ $7,379,400 

aggregate of ' 

23,807 females of from do. to do. at #250 do. 5,951 ,750 

23.067 males under 14 years do. ;.' 50 do. 3,-±60,050 

21,757 females do. do. aillodo. 2,502.055 

9,924 persons of both sexes, over 45 ) „ .^ ,,.- 

years, at $100 ) 

103,153 i at an aver f? e 0f $ 196 65 ' ) $20 
( equal to ) 

Amongst the slaves of the age of forty 
years and upwards, there are, no doubt, many 
of the most valuable, and who ought to be in- 
cluded in one of the first two classes ; but if a 
part of their value be thus excluded, in conse- 
quence of their degradation to a lower one, on 
the other hand, as the same basis will be as- 
sumed for the purpose of estimating the value 
of labour, their wages will be wholly excluded ; 
so that any deficiency which may occur in con- 
sequence of the former omission, will, in all 
probability, be more than compensated by the 
latter. It will not escape the notice of those 
conversant with the subject, that in assuming 



33 

the census classification as a basis, the wages 
of a much smaller number of productive la- 
bourers will be estimated than exists in fact ; 
it must be apparent, indeed, to a cursory 
reader. A practical modification of the plan, 
therefore, in this respect, would, it is believed, 
afford additional evidence of its efficacy. 

Thus, the annual sum to be funded, accord- 
ing to the preceding estimate, would be 
$20,285,655, subject to an increment, or dimi- 
nution, varying as the number of slaves de- 
ported might exceed, or fall short, of the one 
taken as the basis of calculation. 

An estimate of the produce of labour will 
naturally constitute the next subject for con- 
sideration, inasmuch as it is from the surplus 
produce of labour, that funds are expected to 
be derived, for the payment of interest, and 
final redemption of the stock issued. 

Like the preceding estimate, which regards 
the value of the slave, that also which regards 
the value of labour can only, in a great mea- 
sure, be conjectural. It might be expected, 
from the deficient population of St. Domingo, 
and of the Mexican and South American 
states, that wages would be proportionally 
high ; but the fact is stated, by those who have 

5 



34 

visited those countries, to be otherwise. At 
the same time a great difference, they state, is 
made in some of them, between the wages of 
native labourers, and those of foreigners ; in 
St. Domingo, it has been asserted, the differ- 
ence in favour of the latter is two to one. 
This seems to prove that the low rate of wages 
is not altogether owing to a want of capital, 
but may be attributed to the indolent habits of 
the native labourer, whose wants are few, and 
who rarely exerts himself voluntarily ; neces- 
sity, or compulsion, are for the most part neces- 
sary to produce an effort in him. This, per- 
haps, is a natural state of being, where the usual 
motives to exertion have ceased to exist, and 
where the human animal, like those of the 
other species, lies down contented as soon as 
his animal appetites are satiated. The climate 
may have contributed to produce this effect ; 
but ambition, and a desire to improve one's 
condition, are incidental characteristics of all 
climates, and are peculiar to none, so other 
causes have probably had their influence. It 
does not enter into the views of the writer, to 
go into an examination of the subject ; such 
an examination does not come within the 
scope of his plan ; he hazarded the pre- 



35 

ceding observations, for the purpose merely 
of directing the readers attention to the sub- 
ject, and the better to impress upon his mind 
the deduction he means to draw from the pre- 
mises, that if the market value of foreign free 
labour is double that of free native labour, the 
labour of those upon whose individual efforts 
depends the liberty of their persons, as well 
as the period of their redemption, which will 
be longer or shorter, in proportion as their ex- 
ertions are fruitful, must be worth at least as 
much as the latter, considering their motives 
for exertion. In fact, when the slave, after 
having assumed his new character, is taught 
to know that his manumission is dependent 
upon his own labour, and that it will be acce- 
lerated or retarded according to the rate of 
wages which his labour may command, no 
reasonable doubt can be entertained, that so 
powerful a stimulus will produce correspon- 
dent effects, and that his strength will be taxed 
to its utmost, to secure to him the benefits re- 
sulting from the highest attainable rate. Thus 
rising in the scale of productive labourers, 
he will naturally command a proportionate 
share of the produce of his labour, which 
ought, and probably will be, twice or thrice 



36 

the share usually assigned to the native la- 
bourer. 

If the preceding considerations possess the 
weight which the writer believes they merit, 
he flatters himself that the scale of wages as- 
sumed in the following estimate, will not be 
deemed too high. It may be well to remind 
the reader, that no discrimination has been 
made in favour of mechanical labour, and that 
this, when coupled with the fact already stated, 
that the number of labourers included in the 
estimate is considerably within bounds, so 
some reduction might be made in detail, with- 
out reducing the aggregate amount. 

But if, contrary to his intentions and wishes, 
the rates of wages shall be found eventually 
too high, still no probable reduction which the 
case may require can be so great as to render 
his plan nugatory ; the possible effect produced, 
might be to protract the periods fixed for the 
emancipation of the slave, and the redemption 
of the funded stock. 

Of the 103,153 persons, those under 14 and 
above 45 years of age, making an aggregate of 
54,748, will be excluded from the estimate as 
unproductive labourers, and those only inclu- 
ded as productive labourers who belong to the 
other classes, viz : 



37 



24,598 Males from 14 to 45 years of age, ) 

at $10 per month, or $'120 per year, ) 2,951,76© 

23,807 Females from 14 to 45 years of age, ) 

at $6 per month, or $72 per year, J 1,714,104 



Gross amount of wages, $4,665,864 

That an inconsiderable proportion, consist- 
*ng chiefly of old and superannuated persons, 
must be indebted for its freedom to the pro- 
ductive class, is implied, as a necessary condi- 
tion of the plan. It seems but just, however, 
that all under the age of fourteen years, as 
well as some above forty-five, should be made 
dependent upon their own labour for their free- 
dom, or be obliged to contribute towards libe- 
rating others ; and, to that end, that they 
should be required to work a certain number 
of years, after the annual class to which they 
may belong shall have accomplished the pe- 
riod of its general emancipation ; that is to 
say, when the funds, resulting from the surplus 
labour of those who shall have been employed 
productively, shall have amounted to a sum 
equal to the payment of interest, and capital 
stock issued for that purpose ; otherwise, those 
under the age of 14 years will have obtained 
their freedom by having contributed partially 
only, others none at all, towards its acquisition. 



38 

If, for instance, the estimated surplus labour of 
seven years suffice to manumit the whole an- 
nual deportation, it is clear that those of thir- 
teen years old will have worked but six years 
of the seven, those of twelve but five, and so 
on down to those of seven years old, when all 
at and under that age, will become free without 
having laboured at all, and will thus constitute 
a class of exempts. The estimated amount of 
labour can, even in practice, be of an approxi- 
mative character only ; it must, in the nature 
of things, be variable, inasmuch as the older 
labourers will progressively become less pro- 
ductive, whilst the younger ones will progres- 
sively become more so ; every year will re- 
quire a greater or less modification, of the 
rate of wages established for the first one. 
From this view of the subject, we may de- 
duce this important fact, that the estimated 
amount of labour can be subject to no dimi- 
nution ; that besides supplying all deficiencies, 
(mortality not excepted,) the extra labour of 
the voung class may produce an additional and 
disposable fund, which may be applied to ac- 
celerate the emancipation generally, especial- 
ly to each succeeding class, or to any other 
purpose which humanity or expediency may 



39 

dictate. And it follows, also, as a necessary 
consequence, that as the period for the redemp- 
tion of the funded stock must be fixed ; and 
as that of the consummation of the manumis- 
sion of those for whose redemption the stock 
may be*issued, will be dependent upon the 
surplus produce of labour, which, as we have 
seen, is variable and cumulative in its charac- 
ter; — so the sum necessary for the consumma- 
tion of the manumission may have been ac- 
cumulated into the public chest, before the 
funded stock becomes payable, and the for- 
mer may precede the latter by many months. 

The charges which the case seems to re- 
quire, and which are to be defrayed from the 
produce of labour, are few, and amongst these, 
the first in order is that of interest. 

It might be taken for granted, and the pre- 
sent state of the stock market warrants the 
position, that funded stock, payable in seven 
years, more or less, and drawing an interest of 
four and a half per cent., would be readily re- 
ceived in payment by the owners of slaves, or 
could be negociated in market at its par value, 
or something above it. But to obviate all ob- 
jections which might be raised, upon the sub- 
ject — to satisfy, as far as possible, all minds — - 



40 

to meet all doubts which may be raised, and 
the better to demonstrate the competency of 
the plan to its end, two estimates will be made, 
one at an interest of 5 per cent , and the other 
at 4 and an half per cent., by which the result 
of each will be seen. 

^20,285,655, the estimated amount of 
Funded Stock, at an interest of 5 per 
cent., would require an annual pay- 
ment of $1,014,282 75 

#20,285,655, do. at 4 and a half per cent. 912,852 23 

The next charge in course, as well as im- 
portance, is that which will be incident to 
the expenditure for transportation. The free 
adults, now occasionally carried out to St Do- 
mingo, have been, or might be, it is affirmed, 
comfortably accommodated, at the rate, for pas- 
sage money, of from 7 to 8 dollars each , that 
10 dollars would be considered a handsome 
remuneration to the ship owner, and that con- 
tracts, at this rate, might be made to any ex- 
tent. A considerable abatement, from either 
of these rates, might be fairly made for such 
accommodations, both with regard to lodging 
and sustenance, as would probably be deemed 
comfortable, and even luxurious, to the igno- 
rant slave, whose circumscribed notions of 
comfort and accommodation are derived from 
the humble fare to which he has been accus- 



41 

tomed. Another weighty argument for an 
abatement from those rates, is. that a very large 
proportion of the whole number to be trans- 
ported, will consist of very young persons, 
some of them mere children. But, notwith- 
standing these considerations, as a further test 
of the stability of the plan, eight dollars will 
be taken as the average rate of passage 
money, for both sexes, and all ages, to St. Do- 
mingo, and fourteen dollars for all other coun- 
tries within the Gulf of Mexico ; what pro- 
portion of the whole number each of these 
countries may respectively be content, or able, 
to receive, is a question perfectly gratuitous. 
There exists no sort of data to build a conjec- 
ture upon. To bring it into the shape of an 
estimate, the writer will assign one third of 
the whole to St. Domingo, and the residue to 
the other countries, which will give an average 
general rate, for passage money, of twelve 
dollars each ; and 103,153 slaves of both sexes 
and all ages, at $ 12 each, for passage money, 
will require #1,287,836. 

This charge, unlike the others, is not an- 
nual, but is paid once for all. The whole 
amount may, or may not, be taken from the 
first year's labour, according to the conditions 

6 



42 

of the contract made with the employers ; but 
in the estimate, it must be necessarily divided 
by the number of years' service, so as to pro- 
duce a uniform result. It is taken for granted, 
that the slaves will be delivered on board by 
their masters, and received from on board by 
their employers, free of all expense ; and no 
charge, therefore, will be allowed in the esti- 
mate for expenses incident to either case* 

The writer has just said, that recruits from 
the junior class would supply all deficiencies 
occasioned by mortality, which might occur in 
the working or productive class ; but as a fur- 
ther test, and to remove all doubts upon the 
subject, an allowance, in the shape of a charge, 
will be made for that casuality ; and the more 
effectually to put the question at rest, the per 
centage allowed will be taken, not upon the 
estimated amount of wages, $4,665,864, as it, 
strictly speaking, ou^ht to be, but upon that of 
the cost of the slaves, #20,28 .1,655. But in- 
stead of 3 per cent., which he supposes would 
be an adequate allowance, if the former sum 
were taken as a basis, the loss sustained by 
mortality will be put down at H only ; this, 
however, will give more than a twofold ratio, 
or 6 per cent., on the first sum, and amounts 
to #304,284 83. 



43 

The last item of charge for expenses which 
it is thought the case can require, is that for 
agency. It is difficult to conjecture how far 
this may extend ; how many persons it may 
require to superintend the delivery of the slaves 
on board, in this country; their reception from 
on board in other countries, and for subsequent 
permanent superintendence there ; the recep- 
tion and remittance in other countries of the 
produce of their labour, and the reception and 
disposition of it in this country. Some part 
of the duty, perhaps, might be discharged by 
custom-house officers already in service ; but 
their agency must be confined to our own 
shores, and can constitute but a portion of the 
whole. It is thought that the better way, as 
well as the shortest one, will be to make the 
estimate in a commercial way, by an allowance 
of 2 per cent, on the $20,28 5,655, an allow- 
anc a which probably, if it err, as it probably 
may, will surpass what the necessity of the 
case may require, if the experiment should be 
made. $20,285,655, at 2 per cent , will give 
for expenses of agency $405,713 10. Here 
terminates the schedule of charges ; and it is 
now to be shown, that a surplus will remain, 
after defraying the enumerated charges inci- 



44 

dent to the transportation of the slaves to other 
countries, including the interest of the debt 
incurred for their emancipation, to constitute 
a sinking fund adequate also to the redemp- 
tion of the debt, within a given number of 
years, to wit, in about seven years and four 
twelfths, at 5 per cent, interest, and in seven 
years and one twelfth, at 4 ~ per cent interest. 
The aliquot parts of a year have been taken to 
avoid complex fractions, and simplify the pro- 
blem ; and, for the same reason, the amount of 
wages and interest are, respectively, supposed 
to be received and paid once a year only. 

ESTIMATE No. I. AT 5 PER CENT. 

The estimated amount of wages of that 
portion of the 103,153 slaves, constituting the 
estimated number of one year's deportation, 
which is calculated upon as alone productive, 
(see page 37) being $4,665,864 00 

JV nd the expenses to he defrayed 
therefrom being, as per preceding 
enumeration, viz. for interest on 
$1/0,285,655, at 5 per cent, per 
annum, 1,014,282 75 

Passage money, #1,237,836, 
whole amount, divided by 7^, the 
number of years, — 168,795 82 

Allowance for loss by mortality, 304, 2S4 83 

Do. for agency, 405,713 10 



1,893,076 50 
Leaving a surplus fund applicable 
to the redemption of the debt incur- 
ved, of #20,285,655, (page 32) of $2,772,787 50 

But $2,772,787 50, multiplied by 7 T « ? years, will amount 
to $20,333,755, leaving an excess of $48,120. 



45 



ESTIMATE No. II. AT 4i PER CENT. 

Estimated amount of labour, as per esti- 
mate No. 1, 4,665,864 00 

', xpenses to be defrayed, viz : 
for interest on #20,285,655, at 4£ 
per cent, per annum, 912,S52 23 

Passage money, $1,237,836, 
whole amount, divided by 7 T !j, the 
number of years,= 174,753 32 

Allowance for loss by mortality, 304,284 83 
do. for agency, 405,713 10 

1,797,603 48 



Leaving a surplus fund, appli- 
cable as above, of $2,868,260 52 

But $2,868,260 52, multiplied by 7-^ years, 
will amount to #i ? 0,3 16,1-45,35, leaving an 
excess of $31,190 35, and making a differ- 
ence of time, in favour of estimate No. 2, of 
three months, or 3-12 of the whole period. 

Such would be the case, practically, if the 
stock were issued payable, conditionally, by 
annual instalments equal in amount to each 
annual surplus ; or if the surplus, applied as a 
sinking fund, could be invested, annually, in 
the stock at par ; but the first condition would 
be unusual, and would not be agreed to by 
the receivers of the stock, without an increase 
of interest ; and the latter mode would be of un- 
certain execution, besides being attended with 
loss of interest, and perhaps an extra charge 
of agency for managing the operation. As a 



46 

substitute for both, the writer ventures to sug- 
gest another mode, which, if it answers the 
purpose, will also serve to promote the na- 
tional interest in another way. The spirit 
with which internal improvements have been 
projected and executed, and the success with 
which they have been crowned, in some parts 
of the union ; the immense field thus opened 
for the employment of capital to an almost in- 
definite amount, and the probable continuance 
of this spirit so long as the present peaceful 
state of the world exists, warrants the asser- 
tion, that the floating capital of the country can- 
not suffice for all the beneficial enterprises of 
the sort, which may or might be entered into. 
The lead has been taken, and an example been 
set, by a sister state, on a scale commensurate 
with her resources and increasing wealth. If 
others of the sisterhood possess fewer resour- 
ces, they may be disposed to emulate her spirit. 
It is proposed, therefore, to loan the annual 
surplus to corporate bodies, joint-stock compa- 
nies, and others, associated for the purpose of 
digging canals, building bridges, turnpike 
roads, railways, dry-docks, &c &c, the periods 
of payment to be coincident with that of the 
stock, towards the payment of which it may 



47 

be appropriated ; and the rate of interest to be 
that also payable on the same stock. 

Inasmuch as the loans, thus made, would be 
to residents within the United States, subject 
to the laws of the country ; and the govern- 
ment, or its agents, possessing the means of 
estimating the adequacy of the security offer- 
ed, whether of a personal or collateral nature, 
and also an entire legal control over both, the 
objections applicable to those, whether foreign- 
ers, or residents in a foreign country, who 
might be applicants for the services of the 
slaves deported, do not, cannot, apply to this 
case Capital is not equally abundant in all 
parts of the United States ; but improvements 
of the sort alluded to are as much required, 
and may be more beneficially prosecuted, in 
some of them where capital is least abundant. 
Some one or more states may, therefore, be 
candidates for the loans, and a very consider- 
able part of the amount to be thus disposed 
of, may be required to satisfy the demand 
from that quarter. If, then, to the sums thus 
annually loaned, the interest which may have 
accrued on preceding loans be added, a fur- 
ther and very considerable advantage will be 
derived from the process, by its producing the 



48 

effect of compound interest. To illustrate the 
magnitude of the benefit thus produced, it is 
only necessary to state, that the preceding sur- 
plus of 3(2,772,787 50, invested annually, at a 
compound interest of 5 per cent., would 
amount in 6 T V years to $20,114,263^7- ; and 
the 2,863,260-^;* at a compound interest of 4£ 
per cent., would amount in 6^ years to 
#20,209,269 ,W» a saving of time, in the first 
case, of nearly a year, and in the last of ten 
months. 

If the writer has made out his case — if it be 
practicable for the United States, by adopting 
his plan, to relieve themselves of their slave 
population ; how much more practicable it must 
be for those countries which may conveniently 
liberate their slaves on the soils they now cul- 
tivate. Transportation being dispensed with, 
all the expenses incident to it would be saved, 
and the process of manumission, instead of 
being progressive, and requiring a series of 
periods, might commence and terminate 1 the 
manumission of the whole number of thi ir 
slaves, within the same period. The British 
government, for instance, might, with the con- 
sent of the slave-holders in its colonies, be- 
come the sole proprietor of all the slaves in 



49 

that part of its dominions, and the productive 
portion of them might be hired to (heir former 
masters, or to such other persons as might re- 
present them by becoming purchasers or les- 
sees of their estates. That government, too, 
would possess the further advantage of being 
able to issue its funded stock at the reduced 
rate of interest of 3 or 3^- per cent. 

And the United States and Great Britain, 
having given their sanction to this, or a simi- 
lar, or any plan of manumission, all other 
slave-holding countries, whose possessions lie 
in the same quarter of the globe, would be 
obliged to follow their example ; to hesitate 
would be perilous — to oppose or procrastinate 
might be fatal. 

The preceding estimate of the average 
value of slaves, has been made without refer- 
ence to the increased value of the land they 
cultivate, which would be a necessary result of 
the substitution of a free white, for a coloured 
slave population. 

To persons who inhabit states adjoining 
each other, the one a slave-holding, the other 
a non-slave-holding state, this difference of 
value is matter of general notoriety; toothers, 
more distant, of the latter description, it is less 

7 



50 



generally known ; but neither, perhaps, are 
aware of the magnitude of the difference. 
The following examination of the subject, will 
probably be interesting to all ; and its result, 
if not anticipated, may surprise even those who 
have reflected most on the subject. 

The slave-holding states, and the District of 
Columbia, excluding the Florida^ and all ether 
territorial districts, contain, according to Viel- 
lish, 49 2,990 square miles, or 315,513,600 
acres ;* many of these acres are, doubtless, 
rock, water, waste-land, or land of qualities 
not worth cultivating at present. The writer 
possesses no information upon the subject, 
which could justify him in an attempt to ascer- 

* The following admeasurements^ 01 estimates, are taken from Mel- 
lish's Map. of 1820, printed in Philadel) hia, and bei'ite more recent, is 
supposed, also, to be more coned than those of Moise or Seybeit, 
between whose accounts some discrepancy exists. 



Delaware, 

Maryland, 
Virginia, 
N. Carolina, 
S. Carolina, 
Georgia, 



SQUARE 


MILES. 




2,060 
. 10,000 
. 64,000 
. 43.s00 
. 30,080 
. 58.200 


Alabama, 
Mississippi, . 
Tennessee, . 
Louisiana, 
Kentucky, . 
Missouri, 


. 50 800 
. 4ft 3 
. 41 300 
. 4K,f)00 
. 39 000 
. 60,300 


208,140 




284,750 







■ ' 


RECAPITULATION. 




Square miles 
Add District of Cc 


208,140 

284.750 

lumbia 100 




Square 


Miles, 492,9^0 




Or X 640=acres 315,613,600 





51 

tain the quantities of each, and thus to deduce 
the average value of the whole In the esti- 
mate which he is about to make, therefore, he 
will consider the whole as of equal value, and 
Lave the reader to make such abatements as 
his own judgment may dictate ; there will, it is 
1 --/ed, be ample room for the largest pro- 
b tble allowance which the case may be thought 
to require, and still leave him enough to 
support the assertion which has just been 
hazarded. 

If Seybert's book affords us but a meagre 
and unsatisfactory account of the valuation of 
slave property, it indemnifies us for our dis- 
appointment, in that respect, by a full and 
satisfactory one of the value of land, drawn 
from authentic sources ; official returns, made 
under the sanction of an oath, cannot, or ought 
not, to be questioned. If it should be suppo- 
sed, however, that a disposition might have 
been felt and indulged in, by ihe appraisers of 
land, to estimate its value at its lowest possible 
rate, which their duty and their consciences 
would allow them to do, to be just, we must 
suppose, also, the disposition to have been 
generally, not partially, indulged in ; that the 
effect would be universal, and the operation 



52 

equal ; and that the different state valuations 
would hear the same ratios to each other, that 
they would have done if the estimates had 
been taken at higher rates. And whether we 
compare the different valuations of the lands 
of the older and younger non-slave-holding 
states with each other ; those of the older and 
younger slave-holding states with each other ; 
or those of the two former with the two latter ; 
— the difference between old and young, non- 
slave and slave-holding states, will be found 
singularly uniform and impressively interesting. 
The valuation referred to was taken in 1798, 
seven and twenty years ago. A general appre- 
ciation of lands has no doubt taken [dace since 
that period ; in large cities and their neigh- 
bourhoods, and in the richer cotton lands, the 
rise has been greater than elsewhere ; but that, 
in the former, it has bee*n permanent, or sub- 
ject to temporary or moderate variations only, 
whilst in the latter, it has undergone a very 
considerable diminution, is certain. It would 
be exceedingly difficult, if not impracticable, 
without a new valuation, to ascertain if any, and 
what, variation this might have occasioned in 
the comparative value of lands ; but as no sub- 
sequent valuation has been made, necessity 
obliges us to use the materials in our posses- 



55 



sion, which are of an authentic character, or to 
seek for others in the airy regions of specula- 
tion. The writer prefers the former, as best 
calculated to afford fair deductions ; and as 
also leading to the nearest approach to the 
true state of the case, from which, notwith- 
standing a possible uncertainty, he does not 
expect to be very distant. 

But if a doubt be entertained, whether some 
change may not have taken place in the com- 
parative value of lands since 1798, none can 
be of a still existing disparity, nor of the ope- 
rative cause of that disparity. 

To the following extract (Seybert, p. 50.) is 
added the rate of land per acre, for each state 
respectively. 





NUMBER OF 


VALUATION IN 


average 


STATES. 






rate per 




ACRES. 


DOLLARS. 


acre 


New-Hampshire, . • 3,749,061 


19,028,108 03 


5 08 


Massachusetts, . 


. 7,831,028 


59,445,642 64, 7 59 


Rhode-Island, . 




565,844 


8,082,355 21 14 28 


Connecticut, 




. 


2,649,149 


40,163,945 24 15 16 


Vermont, 




. 


4,918,722 


15,165,484 02 3 08 


New-York, . 




. 


16,414,510 


74,885,075 69; 4 56 


New-Jersey, 




. 


2,788,282 


27,287,981 89 1 9 78 


Pennsylvania, 




. 


11,959,865 


72,824,852 60 6 09 


Delaware, 




. 


1,074,105 


4,053,248 42| 3 77 


Maryland, 




. 


5,444,272 


21,634,004 67 3 99 


Virginia, . 




, 


40,458,644 


59,976,860 06 


1 48 


N. Carolina, 




, 


20,956,467 


27,900,479 70 


1 33 


S. Carolina, 




. 


9,772,587 


12,456,720 94 


1 27 


Georgia, . 




. . 13,534,159 


10,263,506 95 


76 


Kentucky, . , 


. . 17,674,634 


20,268,325 07 


1 15 


Tennessee, . . 


• • 


3,951,357 


5,847,662 00 


1 48 








163,746,686 


479,293,263 13 





54 

The third column, which contains the average 
rate of land per acre in each state, affords also 
a scale of its comparative value, not only in the 
slave-holding, and non slave-holding states, 
but of that also in each of the denominations, 
designating with singular precision those which 
are more or less populous — older or younger ; 
another pretty conclusive argument in favour 
of the valuation as a fair comparative document. 
But the difference it exhibits between the value 
of land in states of the two denominations, is 
all into which the subject under consideration 
requires to be examined ; and although this 
might be done in a variety of ways, each afford- 
ing useful and instructive deductions corrobo- 
rative of the general position — yet the writer 
will confine himself to those only which the 
case seems to render necessary, beginning 
with adjoining states, those between which 
the line seems, by general assent, to be drawn, 
viz. Pennsylvania on the one side, and Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and Virginia, which by way of 
distinction may be called lateral states, on the 
other. In the former, the average value of land 
is given at $6 09. Taking the latter three as 
constituting one section only, the average value 



55 

of their respective rates, would give ft 82 per- 
acre,* leaving a difference in favour of Pennsyl- 
vania of $4 17 per acre, and more than three 
and a third for one. If we compare the 
highest rates in one of each denomination of the 
states, the result will be no less striking, viz. : 

For Connecticut where we find the highest i 

average rate at J $15 16 

For Maryland where we find the highest 1 

average rate at J 3 99 



Leaving a difference in favour of Connecticut of $11 17 
And three to one nearly. 

Taking those of the two denominations, 
where the average rates of land are the lowest, 

We have for Vermont , $3 08 

" " Georgia ... . 76 



Making a difference in favour of Vermont, of 2 32 

and more than four to one. 

The line which has been designated as sepa- 
rating the slave from the non-slave-holding 
states, is that also which nature seems to have 
fixed between those, where the ordinary cereal 
and leguminous, and other productions of the 
earth, of first necessity, may be cultivated, and 



acres. 



*Delaware, 1,074,105 
Maryland, 5,444,272 
Virginia, 40,458,644 



46,977,021 



$ 4,053,242 42 
21 ; 634,004 67 
59,976,866 06 

85,664,113,15=1,82H 



56 

those where the most luxurious, but some of 
them hardly less necessary productions, of to- 
bacco, cotton, and sugar, are cultivated, consti- 
tuting the riches of their country, and in amount, 
by far the largest portion of the national domes- 
tic exports. The cultivation of these produc- 
tions continues to increase, and has no other 
assignable limits than such as depend upon 
soil and consumption ; and if the latter be 
commensurate with the former, many genera- 
tions will pass away, and our remote descen- 
dants only may see it stationary. 

Such is the variety of climate and soil, that 
almost all which those states do not now pro- 
duce, of a botanical character, which belong to 
temperate or torrid climates, may be introduced 
there. The vine, the fig, and the orange tree, 
are natives, and flourish luxuriantly. The olive 
and almond trees have been partially intro- 
duced and cultivated. All these may become 
new staples, furnishing additional sources of 
individual and national wealth, and giving in- 
creased exchangeable value to the land But 
why speculate in possible good, whilst the bar 
to its realization, the incubus which weighs 
down, and oppresses to disease, that otherwise 
happy section of our country, remains to be 



57 

removed ? Let us turn from this afflictive state 
of the case, take another view of the subject, 
and see if a further and conclusive reason may 
not be assigned, to urge an immediate and ef- 
fectual effort on the part of the proprietors of 
that sort of property, to relieve themselves and 
the country from its greatest, if not its on \ 
curse. 

Land, in a country possessing so many ad- 
Vantages of climate and soil, every thing else 
equal, ought to command a greater exchange- 
able value than land in higher latitudes, where 
winter lasts six or more months, during which 
time the agricultural labours of the husband- 
man are suspended ; but let us suppose a pe- 
riod when slavery shall have ceased, the popu- 
lation to have become homogeneous by the 
removal of the " ring-streaked, spotted and 
speckled," and land to have risen only so much 
as to have been brought upon a level with 
that with which the comparison has just been 
made, and then let us see what the result will 
give. 

The number of acres being 315,513,600,* 
and the difference between the highest average 
rates of land in the slave and non-slave-hold- 

* See page 50. 



58 

ing states, respectively, being $11 17, the ap- 
preciation in money would be #3,524,284,912. 
The number of acres the same, and the difference 
between land in Pennsylvania, and the lateral 
slave-holding states, being $4 26|, the appre- 
ciation in money would be ^l,340,938,058yV°o- 
The number of acres the same, and the dif- 
ference between the lowest average of land, in 
the slave and non-slave-holding states, being 
02 32, the appreciation in money would be 
#731,991,552. 

Now the first sum, $3,524,284,912, divided 
by 1,761,150, (the number of slaves,) gives for 
each slave, $2001 12 

The second sum, ^1,340,938,058, divided by 
1,761,150, (the number of slaves,) gives for each 
slave, $761 39 

The third sum, £73 1,990,552, divided by 
1,761,150, (the number of slaves,) gives for each 
slave, $415 63 

If the position, with regard to the probable 
rise in the exchangeable value of land, conse- 
quent upon a change of slave for free labour, 
be sustained by the preceding view of the 
case, then it only remains to make such deduc- 
tions as may be thought adequate for such a 
proportion of the number of acres as may not 
be arable, or otherwise valuable, land. For 
arguments sake, and to place the question 
beyond all doubt, let us reduce the preceding 



59 

rates of value for each slave to one half their 
amount, and then we have for the highest 
IOOOjVVj more than four times the estimated 
value, and nearly eight times the appraised va- 
lue of slaves in Maryland, in 1798. 

For the medium, or that derived from a com- 
parison between Pennsylvania and its late- 
ral neighbours, $380 65, nearly twice the esti- 
mated value, and nearly three times the ap- 
praised value of slaves in Maryland, in 1793. 

For the lowest, $207 81, more than the esti- 
mated value, and consequently an excess of 
50 per cent, or more, over the appraised value 
of slaves in Maryland, in 1798. 

From all which, this remarkable and very 
important fact is established, viz. : that if the 
slave-holders were to manumit their slaves 
gratuitously, and pay the expense of their trans- 
portation in the mode designated in the pre- 
ceding pages, they would still, at the lowest of 
the preceding rates, be indemnified in the in- 
creased value of their land, to the full amount 
of their estimated value, and at the highest of 
the preceding rates, would receive, in the same 
way, more than a fourfold remuneration. 

The writer forbears to make any comment 
upon these deductions ; but, leaving the reader 



00 

to his own reflections, will proceed on his way 
to other kindred topics. 

Doubts exist in the minds of many sensible 
persons — whether the white race of people are 
able to withstand the intemperature of our 
southern climates ? or at least if they were at 
all able to withstand the climate as la- 
bourers, whether it will not be at a greater 
expense of life, than that to which the blacks 
and their descendants are subject ? To obviate, 
as far as possible, the doubts of such persons, 
it may be observed, 1st. that nature, subject to 
uniform and fixed laws, assigns to each soil, 
and every climate, its appropriate mineral, ve- 
getable, and animal beings. That negroes are 
not, and no historical trace remains to indicate 
they ever were, aborigines of this country. 
The people who were found here, by the first 
discoverers of the country, and some of whose 
descendants are still amongst us, are a totally 
different race, using the term in its ordinary 
acceptation, and indicating by their structure, 
cast of countenance, and qualities of mind, an 
Asiatic, rather than an African origin. The 
question, whether the negro has been changed 
from what he was, and made what he now is, 
by the climate of Africa, or not, can have 



61 

iio bearing upon the argument meant to be 
dtawD from this fact; the Indian remains as 
he wns found ; nor has the African undergone 
any sensible change since he was first brought 
into this and its neighbouring countries. 
2ndiy. With regard to the ability of white la- 
bourers to withstand southern and even torrid 
climates, we may refer, as evidence in the affir- 
mative, not merely to other various parts of the 
globe, but to their own mechanics, and other 
out-of-door labourers, who are as much expo- 
sed, and work much harder than the field slave, 
without being subject to a greater degree of 
mortality. This assertion, it is true, is gratui- 
tous ; but the writer has met with no evidence 
of a contradictory nature, and his own obser- 
vation leads him to believe that none exists. 
3rdly. The further evidence afforded by the 
small farmers of their own districts of country, 
who cultivate their own soils solely, or with 
the assistance of slaves, and who at least en- 
joy as good an average state of health, and 
live as long, or longer, than the latter. People 
of both these classes, who migrate from more 
northern climates, are not included ; the com- 
parison would be an unequal one ; but even 
these, with a few exceptions, after they be- 



62 

come acclimated, support the various tempera- 
tures perfectly well, and many even prefer 
them to their native regions. 

But our country is yet too young for experi- 
ment to be fairly tested here ; we should seek 
for more conclusive evidence in older countries, 
similarly situated with regard to climate. We 
need not travel even so far as A sia in search 
of it; in the northern parts of Italy, rice is 
cultivated by its own peasantry, and if ihey are 
not so robust, if they enjoy a worse state of 
health, if they die at an earlier age, than those 
who cultivate drier soils, or mountainous coun- 
tries, the difference is probably no greater than 
that which exists between the negroes of our 
rice savannahs, and those employed in the cul- 
tivation of the sugar-cane and cotton plant. 
In the southern part of the same country, there 
are cotton growers, and they and their fellow 
cultivators of the other products of the same soil, 
are exposed to rays more ardent than those of 
our southern sun in its canicular strength, since 
the rays of theirs are aggravated by the sirocco, 
whose relaxing blast it requires the firmest 
muscles to withstand. In the south of Spain, 
again, sugar plantations have existed, may per- 
haps still exist ; and if they do not, they must 



63 

have ceased to exist, because, like the gold 
mines of the same country, the greater abun- 
dance and cheaper rate at which the same va- 
luable commodities are produced in our western 
hemisphere, have rendered theirs unprofitable. 

From these two, and from other parts of 
Europe, if it were necessary, or expedient, 
labourers, in almust any number, might be 
easily obtained. The necessity will probably 
never exist ; but it may be expedient, perhaps, 
to bring a few thousand hardy peasantry from 
each, if it were only for the sake of introducing 
the culture of such new staples into this coun- 
try as have already been alluded to ; from their 
knowledge and experience might be derived 
both great private and public benefits ; as great, 
at least, as the introduction of spinners and 
weavers, or even the secrets of some new twist 
or tasteful manufacture, requiring the sedenta- 
ry labour of hundreds of devoted victims of 
both sexes, not exposed to the rays of the sun 
certainly, but shut out from its benign influ- 
ence, crowded into the same enclosures, and 
breathing the suffocating compound of a thrice 
inhaled and vitiated atmosphere. 

The Neapolitan labourers, natives of the 
country, are not less remarkable for the sym- 



64 

metry of their form, than for their muscular 
strength. The southern Spaniards, with less 
beauty of structure, and perhaps less bodiiy 
strength, are nevertheless a healthy, vigorous, 
and efficient race. 

Doubts may be also entertained, whether the 
annual reduction of so large a number of co- 
loured labourers might not be greater than 
could be compensated by natural increase, or 
the influx of white labourers from other parts 
of the country, or elsewhere. Some incon- 
venience might be experienced from this cause 
for the first year or two ; but, by degrees, its na- 
tural effect would be produced ; a higher rate of 
wages, and the consequent demand for labour, 
would draw to that part of our country a stream 
of migratory labourers ; softer climates and 
richer soils, sources of comfort and abundance, 
supplying easier means of living, would con- 
tribute to accelerate the natural increase ; the 
supply would soon become regular and equal 
to the demand, and when the last coloured la- 
bourer shall abandon his hoe, it will drop into 
the hands of a white one. 

But all the emigrants will not be mere day- 
labourers ; all will not come empty handed. 
Many of them, encouraged by the removal of 



65 

the objectionable part of the population, and a 
consequent modification of society and man- 
ners, will become purchasers of land, and set- 
tlers, enlarging the number of small farmers, 
and thus constituting an efficient means of in- 
creasing the exchangeable value, or raising the 
market price of land. The planter, who now 
looks to the labour of his slaves as the chief 
source of wealth, will then derive it from a 
threefold source, that of the value of his 
slaves, the produce of his soil, and the sale of 
his land. 

The sale of every acre, would add value to 
what remain ; and his land would, progres- 
sively, and in a comparatively short period of 
time, rise to its maximum value. A neat and 
economical culture, sober and moral habits 
and decent manners, would be substituted for 
the slovenly and wasteful culture, and loose and 
barbarous habits and manners of slaves, who 
now but vex the soil with their reluctant, list- 
less, intermittent labour. 

The expense incident to the transportation 
of the slaves has already been noticed ; a few 
words may be expected on the subject of the 
quantity of tonnage necessary to the execution 

9 



66 

of that operation, and the probably beneficial 
effects derivable from that future branch of our 
carrying trade. 

If the deported individuals were all adults, 
two tons each would not, perhaps, be too great 
an allowance ; but as a portion, and no incon- 
siderable one, will consist of infants, or per- 
sons of a minor age, one ton and a half each 
may be considered an ample allowance. At 
this rate, it would require 154, 729^ tons, for 
the 103,153 in lividmls, the annual number to 
be provided for, if the voyage also were an- 
nual. But the same vessel may easily per- 
form four voyages to St. Domingo, annually, 
and three to the other neighbouring conti- 
nental countries designated as more likely to 
receive a part of the emigrants ; so that one 
third of that amount of tonnage, or 51,576-j* 
may be considered, therefore, as sufficient for 
the purpose. 

The American commercial marine could easi- 
ly supply this additional demand, although much 
of it would be drawn from other, but less 
profitable employments. The demand for ves- 
sels to supply the places of those thus with- 
drawn, would bring capital from less profitable 



67 

occupation to this branch of industry — give a 
new impulse to that of our hardy, intelligent, 
indefatigable shipbuilders ; encouraging by that 
sort of protection which is most natural, most 
durable, entirely unobjectionable, and most 
efficient, the noblest and most important of 
our manufactories, employing the greatest 
amount of capital, the greatest number of the 
most productive labourers, our adventurous and 
weather-beaten fishermen alone excepted, and 
contributing alike to the national wealth, the 
national strength, and the national honour. 

The ultimate beneficial effects would be an 
increase of our tonnage to the whole, or near- 
ly the whole amount of the tonnage employed, 
and permanent, so long at least as the de- 
mand lasted which called it into existence ; 
again, adding, by enlarging our nursery for 
seamen, in a two fold degree, to the strength 
and wealth of the nation. 

But the catalogue of benefits to the nation 
which may flow from the contemplated change 
of population, although reducible in some mea- 
sure to mathematical estimation, may not only 
in a moral, but in a pecuniary and economical 
point of view, be considered incalculable. Of 



68 

the moral benefits, every reader will make his 
own estimate. 

The following view of the case may help to 
show some of the pecuniary and economical 
advantages. 

Thirty-five years have been assumed as the 
period of time required to remove, by annual 
deportations, the whole number of slaves now 
supposed to exist in the United States ; and 
seven years and the fraction of a year, the pe- 
riod of time requisite to consummate the manu- 
mission of the individuals constituting each 
annual deportation. So that there will be an 
ascending and descending series of seven years 
at the commencement and determination of the 
thirty-five years, when the importations of pro- 
duce, or specie, resulting from the surplus 
labour, will gradually increase in the one case 
and decrease in the other, in arithmetical pro- 
gression, leaving twenty-one years of maximum 
amount of import. 

Thus, taking the annual surplus* at $2, 700,000 only, 
and the period at seven years, we shall have at the seventh 
period $18,900,000 ; this, added to the former, and multi- 
plied hy 3i, will give tor the ascending series $75,600,000 



* The writer takes the surplus only, following up the grounds he 
took at first ; but it is self-evirlenl that the sum taken is too small by 
[e R mount of interest, and so much of the expense incident to 
c, as an uiyable in this country. 



69 

And the same amount, in like manner, will ) 

give for the descending series, J 75,600,000 

And #18,900,000, the maximum amount of ) 

imports for 21 years, will give ) 39 6,900,000 

$548,100,000 

The passage money is supposed to be re- 
ceived at the place of landing or delivery, 
and to be brought back, like the surplus' 
produce of labour, in the products of the 
several foreign countries, or in bullion. 
If we take* 35 years as a multiplier, and 
the annual number of individuals at 103,153 
as a multiplicand, the whole number de- 
ported, in 35 years, will be 3,610,355 
which, at #12 each, the estimate average 
rate, wdl amount to the further sum of $43,324,260 

Making the grand total of imports amount to $591,424,260 

If 30 per cent be estimated as the average rate of duty 
on the products of these tropical countries, it will probably 
be rnthm bounds; and m estimating the amount of products 
to be three-fourths ot the whole, or $443,568,195, (that 
also, will probably be within bounds,) we shall then have 
as a gross sum, paid into the treasury, (leaving out of the 
estimate the additional 10 per cent, of the 
CUSt ° ms ') of $133,070,458 50 

The tonnage duty on 5l,576i tons, at 
rf tj thr ee times a year, the number of 
trips estimated, or at the rate of r \\, will 
give an annual amount of $9,283 77, or 
an aggregate amount for 35 years of 324,935 95 

Making a grand total paid into the ) 

treasur ^ of ) $133,395,394 45 

or an annual average payment of $3,811,296*98 



* The reader is also reminded, that the number of years taken is an 
•roximative and illustrative only. See note, Da ™ 24 " 3p ' 



note, page 24. 



70 

But so fertile in benefits is the proposed 
thange, of a free white for a coloured popula- 
tion, that in attempting to enumerate them, we 
are led on, step by step, until a crowd of new 
objects fill and delight the mind, and elevate 
us, prospectively, into the regions of specula- 
tion, where imagination, assuming the reins, 
wantons in anticipated and indefinite fruition. 
Like the Nile, it seems to spread itself over the 
face of a whole country, distributing its tribu- 
tary beneficence to every part, in just portions ; 
giving action, renovated existence, and in- 
crease of happiness, to millions. 

And all these blessings are offered to us in 
exchange for a public nuisance — a source of 
national degradation, heart-burning, and dis- 
sention. 

It is a subject worthy of deliberate conside- 
ration, whether sound policy, as well as humani- 
ty, may not dictate that a part of what is paid 
into the national treasury, in the shape of 
revenue, should be appropriated to defray a 
portion of the expenses incident to the removal 
of the slaves from the country, and thus to 
facilitate and expedite their deportation and 
consequent manumission ; whether exact jus- 



71 

tice. after all, both to them, and ourselves, doe« 
not require it. A reduction of the expenses 
of transportation, by increasing the amount of 
surplus funds, would, wages remaining at the 
estimated rate, conduce to accelerate the manu- 
mission ; on the other hand, if wages were re- 
duced proportionally, leaving the period of 
manumission the same, the reduction of wages 
would naturally increase the demand for that 
species of labour, and thus accelerate the de- 
portation. 

The advantage derivable to the country, 
through the medium of the custom-house, may 
be considered of a doubtful character by some, 
because a part must necessarily be re-export- 
ed, if the imports should exceed the consump- 
tion of the country, and that consequently a 
proportionate amount of duty must be drawn 
back. 

Persons, not conversant with the nature 
of foreign commerce, or the principles of po- 
litical economy, will be very apt to take this 
view of the case. The following elucidation 
and illustration of the subject, may, perhaps, 
assist to dispel their doubts. 

The sums thus received and derived from 



72 

the labour of the slave, in exchange for his 
liberty, represents him transformed into active 
capital, and become a part of the national 
wealth. Any part of this modified capital 
which might be re-exported, must be supposed 
to be either given or thrown away, an inadmis- 
sible proposition, or it must return after a 
second modification, that is, in the shape of 
some other foreign merchandise ; and it must 
have been increased also, in value, to the 
amount of a sum equal to all the incidental 
expenses to which it must have been subject, 
in addition to the interest and mercantile pro- 
fit on the capital employed ; otherwise, those 
whose time and capital were consumed in the 
management of the operation, will have been 
losers. The expenses, interest and profits of 
a voyage, bear, or ought to bear, an exact ratio 
to its length. The returns, therefore, of an ex- 
ported or re-exported article, must, in all suc- 
cessful cases, more than replace, in the public 
chest, (and in proportion to the length of the 
voyage,) what was drawn back, on the exported 
or re-exported article. 

It is clear, therefore, that if the process were 
continued and repeated a hundred times, the 



73 

advantage would be just so many times multi- 
plied. The individual agent, and his depend- 
ants, all who were employed by him, would grow 
richer, and the capital of the country would 
be increased in amount. A part also of the 
accumulated sum would necessarily remain in 
the country, because it could not be exported ; 
viz. : the wages of those, whether mechanics 
or labourers, who were employed in repairing, 
repacking, removing, or stowing the articles 
shipped ; those of the seamen who navigated 
the vessel in which they were transported; and, 
generally speaking, the freight of the articles 
paid to the owner of the vessels. This simple 
counting-house detail, may serve also in a 
small degree to exemplify some of the advan- 
tages of foreign commerce, and particularly its 
instrumentality towards increasing the wealth 
and enjoyments of the nation, in fostering its 
own maritime power, and in extending its re- 
lations with all other nations. 

The writer having accomplished the task he 
imposed upon himself, sends forth this product 
of his literary labour, to receive from public 
opinion the impress of its real or comparative 
value. He regrets that his time and his talents 

10 



74 

were neither of them propitious to his wishes ; 
and that the chess in which his observations 
are clothed, is not more appropriate to the 
dignity and importance of the subject dis- 
cussed. It is his first appearance before the 
public, as an author ; he makes it with reluc- 
tance and diffidence. The total absence of all 
other plans, which seemed to possess even the 
promise of efficacy, induced him to suggest 
the one he has thus ventured to offer, with "all 
its imperfections on its head." This con- 
sideration, and his desire to be useful, overcame 
his repugnancy. He says thus much in jus- 
tice to himself, not with a view to deprecate 
the forbearance, or conciliate the indulgence of 
those who may condescend to become his re- 
viewers. 

He is desirous, on the contrary, to have his 
errors exposed and corrected. 

He hopes to see his plan, if it be thought 
worthy of notice at all, thoroughly analyzed, 
and examined through all its details ; that if 
a part be found useful, it may be adopted, any 
which may be found defective rejected, and 
other materials substituted and applied by 
some one better qualified for the task. 



75 

If he be not fortunate enough to suggest a 
consistent and practicable whole — if someparts 
only be found appropriate and useful — if he 
shall have contributed but in a remote decree 
towards harmonizing conflicting interests, and 
promoting the general happiness and welfare 
of his fellow citizens, the trifling labour it has 
cost him to collect his materials, and the few 
hours he has spent in putting them together, 
will be more than compensated. 



AN 



'ATOttStST 



TO DEMONSTRATE THE PRACTICABILITY 



EMANCIPATING THE SLAVES 



UNITED STATES OP NORTH AMERICA, 

AND OF REMOVING TFIEM FROM THE COUNTRY,' WITHOUT 
IMPAIRING THE RIGHT OF 

PRIVATE PROPERTY, 



SUBJECTING THE NATION TO A TAX. 



BY 



A NEW-ENGLAND MAN. 



nihw-yo^x: 

published by g. & c. carvill. 

Gruttan, Printer, Thames-street. 
1825. 



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ITbRABV OF CONGRESS 



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